1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a protective cover set for covering a medical probe that may be inserted into an endocavity or used intraoperatively through an incision in a human or an animal body.
2. Background
For certain medical examinations, elongated probes are inserted into body cavities, i.e. endocavities, for positioning the probe relative to the body area to be examined. To protect the ultrasound probes against contamination from body fluids like sweat, blood, saliva, mucus, pus and other secretions, a protective cover may be used as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,795,632. U.S. Pat. No. 5,795,632 has been assigned to the same assignee and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
For some applications of the protective cover set, the probe cover must be fixed securely to the medical probe, especially when the medical probe, e.g. an ultrasound probe, is moved within the endocavity.
It is known to use clamps or rubber bands to attach the probe cover to the ultrasound probe. However, clamps and rubber bands both require two hands to fix the probe cover to the ultrasound probe. This is inconvenient and time-consuming. Further, clamps and rubber band may shift relative to the probe cover and therefore do not provide a secure hold.